TBMP Third Edition, 1st Revision, Now Available

The First Revision of the Third Edition of the Trademark Manual of Board Procedure ("TBMP") has been published (here). It includes practice updates occurring between November 15, 2010 and March 2, 2012.

This revision incorporates amendments to the Trademark Act, the Trademark Rules of Practice, and the Federal Rules, where applicable. For example, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were amended effective December 1, 2010, after the completion date for the third edition of the TBMP. This revision further updates references to Board, Federal Circuit, and, where applicable, other federal court cases. Content additions and revisions reflect the evolution and refinement of Board practice as experienced and articulated between November 15, 2010 and March 2, 2012. The discussions of initial disclosures, expert disclosures, pretrial disclosures, and the interplay between such disclosures and discovery, may be of particular interest, now that almost five years have passed since the adoption by the Board of a modified disclosure and conferencing model, effective November 1, 2007. Also of interest may be the experiences of parties electing Accelerated Case Resolution ("ACR") or utilizing stipulations in non-ACR cases which realized efficiencies of time and cost. As with previous editions, this edition is available online at the Board home page of the USPTO web site in a searchable format, which facilitates searching of its contents by users.